Description
The old church of Saint Fortunato is located outside the village of Poggioprimocaso, along the road leading to Ponte at the foot of Maggio Mountain; ex-parish church and former “priorale”, it was built with the convent (today are some remains of it) annexed in 1121 by Pietro IV the Abbot of Sassovivo near Foligno. It preserves the apse, the lancet windows and the semi-columns, testifying its Romanesque origin.
The facade, with gabled roof (maybe with a small rose in the center), has two portals, one of them from 1619. A little belfry is on one side. Near at the right side, stood a small cloister, built to repair the farmers from bad weather. The interior has two unequal naves (because of a fourteenth century widening due to the growing of the population). The naves are covered by ogival vaults, supported by two central pillars. Ribbed vaults with votive sixteenth century frescoes remain only in the third right span. The vaulted apse, split by pilaster strips, preserves paintings of the Evangelists. In the arch, within medallions, half-length saints; in the outer surface of the arch the Theological Virtues, the emblems of Cardinal Poli and Antonelli family. On the walls, marked by narrow splayed lancet windows, are frescoes from the XV (1468) to the XVI centuries, some of them highly damaged. Of a special meaning is the third right span fresco, depicting the arrival of Saint Fortunato`s relics. The relics was donated by the Cardinal Poli to the community in 1639, after the spreading out of a terrible epidemic. The work of art is probably by Salvi Castellucci from Arezzo (artist dear to the Cardinal Poli). On the main altar (where had to be a stone tabernacle in a cubic shape with small corner columns) is a painting by Cola dell`Amatrice: here Jesus is going to the Calvario with a group of armed men (there are also his crying Mother and the Pious Women); on the sides the Saints Bardone and Rita.
The baptistery is shaped as a monolithic spherical cup with opposing lobes (XIV century). The building suffered damages, as for earthquakes, and restoration (1976), following a questionable choice, removed wooden seventeenth century altars. In 1969, the new parish church was built inside the village (to help the inhabitants, who had to walk to the distant former church until then). There are works from S. Fortunato: humble paintings from the XVII century, a wooden statue of Our Lady from the XIII century, a processional cross in gilded copper plate from the early XVI and other furniture.